Please explain what, if anything, is wrong with medicare and
what needs to be done to fix it.
Response:
The Medicare trust fund will become insolvent by the year 2001 if
nothing is done to save the program. This information comes from the
trustees of the fund. I didn't make them up. Every day we wait to reform
Medicare, the trust fund loses another $25 million. Problems ignored
can never be solved, they only grow worse. Every day we wait to fix
Medicare, the more draconian will be the measures needed to save the
program.
The problem is demographics. The Baby Boomers number over 70 million
Americans. We Baby Boomers are being followed by the smallest number
of Americans (Generation X). There will be only two Generation X and
younger taxpayers to support each Baby Boomer. The system cannot and will
not work as structured. This is fact, not fiction. The only two people
I have met that seem to have not arrived at this obvious conclusion are
Paul Wellstone and Rudy Boschwitz.
Currently, 49% of the federal budget pays entitlements while an
additional 19% pays the interest on the $5.2 trillion debt - 86% of which
was incurred during the 18 years my two opponents served as our US
Senators. If nothing is done to change the entitlement programs, by
the year 2012, 100% of the federal budget will be used for entitlements
and interest on the debt. The system cannot be saved by changing the
reimbursement formula to the states as stated by Senator Wellstone.
Several things need to be done to save Medicare. Medicare is in worse
shape than Social Security due to escalating medical costs that are
rising at three times the rate of inflation. That is why Medicare hits
the wall 11 years earlier than Social Security.
The solutions are as follows:
1. Means test the party B premium. Why should Leona Helmsley get free
medical insurance while 37 million Americans cannot afford it? $17
billion dollars of entitlements go to retirees making over $100,000 a
year while $60 billion goes to retirees making over $50,000 a year.
2. Open up the Medicare benefit package to competitive bid from the
private health insurance industry. If the private health care providers
or HMO providers can provide the package in a more cost effective way,
they should get the bid on a state-by-state basis. Hopefully this
competitive model can help keep health care costs from skyrocketing.
In addition, I would open up the Medicare group to any American that
wants to purchase it on a voluntary basis. This would in effect be a
voluntary single payer plan that would provide the private sector with
competition.
3. Increase the deductibles and co-payment levels now paid by Medicare
recipients.
4. Look at raising the FICA wage ceiling to $70,000 to increase program
revenues.
A combination of these reforms can save both Medicare and Social Security
but only if we elect people that have the courage to be honest about
the problem and can stand up to the special interests that do not want
the program touched. If we don't touch them, they will die and no one
will receive the benefits the programs were started to provide.